Another “Team Blue” Awesome Triumph– Wisconsin Democrat Chris Taylor Clobbers GOP Nominee Maria Lazar for an Open Wisconsin Supreme Court Seat April 8, 2026
Another Tuesday, another “Team Blue” win to bring smiles of triumph for our side. On April 7, 2026, liberal Wisconsin judge Chris Taylor won her seat on that state’s Supreme Court. And the results weren’t even close. Ms.Taylor, a former Democratic Badger State Representative and current state appellate judge, clobbered “big time” her GOP rival, fellow conservative appellate judge Maria Lazar in a race for a 10-year term. This contest was called for Taylor not even half an hour after the polls had closed. With 95% of the votes counted, Taylor took 59.5% of the vote to Lazar’s 40.4%, a 19.1% spread. https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/07/chris-taylor-wins-wisconsin-supreme-court-race-00863281, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-electionss/wisconsin-state-supreme-court-results
This landslide win is another strong election victory for liberals since Demagogue/Dictator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Taylor(judge)Donald’s return to office. Taylor’s win additionally increases the 4-3 liberal majority on the Badger State High Court to a more comfortable 5-2 one. https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/07/chris-taylor-wins-wisconsin-supreme-court-race-00863281 The Taylor-Lazar contest occurred because conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley retired which opened up another seat with a 10-year term on the WI Supreme Court. https://19thnews.org/2026/04/wisconsin-supreme-court-election
And get this. WI, known lately for being a political swing state, has not given conservatives a High Court victory since a narrow 2019 6,000 vote win. Since that time, liberal WI judges Jill Karofsky, Janet Protasiewicz, Susan Crawford, and now Chris Taylor have cruised to easy wins in a WI spring electorate that is leaning firmly leftward. If every one of these justices finishes out their terms, the win locks in a liberal court majority till at least 2030. https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/07/chris-taylor-wins-wisconsin-supreme-court-race-00863281 And apparently, it didn’t matter whether or not Elon Musk poured millions into the contest as he unsuccessfully did against Susan Crawford. Musk or no Musk, Wisconsinites did not buy the GOP candidate or their stands in either race. https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/07/chris-taylor-wins-wisconsin-supreme-court-race-00863281
And anyone who thinks that whoever sits on the WI High Court or any other similar bench in a different state makes no difference in how the decisions come down is politically naive. ALL elections matter, not just for national and state legislative offices, but also for judicial ones. True, judicial elections in WI are technically non-partisan, in theory, that is. However, in the real world, they have become just about as politicized as any partisan legislative contests. https://19thnews.org/2026/04/wisconsin-supreme-court-election/ And the cases that have come before WI’s High Court deal with hot button and highly significant issues that justices considered Democrats or Republicans hotly disagree about. Since liberals captured the Badger Supreme Court, they have ordered new legislative maps in Wisconsin, which has ended a GOP gerrymander that had lasted over a decade. Congressional districts will no longer be radically tipped or contorted in “Team Red’s” favor. This decision may be very helpful in getting Democrats to recapture the House in Campaign 2026. In addition, in July, 2025, the WI High Court overturned that state’s 176-year-old abortion ban by a 4-3 majority. https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/07/chris-taylor-wins-wisconsin-supreme-court-race-00863281 After the U.S.Supreme Court overruled “Roe v. Wade” and sent the abortion issue back to the states, the WI High Court’s overturning an old state anti-abortion rule was, obviously, one big win for the state’s pro-choice side. That one vote High Court majority really mattered.
Since Trump’s presidential administrations, Democrats have drawn record levels of spending and national attention to aid their liberal candidates in ultra-swing state WI. While Trump has sat in the Oval Office, WI Democratic voters have been more likely to turn out in off-cycle and special elections such as court contests. https://19thnews.org/2026/04/wisconsin-supreme-court-election
Taylor outraised and outspent Lazar, according to a campaign spending tracker from the non-partisan Brennan Center for Justice. Her campaign spent nearly $3 million compared to just over $330,000 for Lazar. Outside Democratic-leaning groups, A Better Wisconsin Together, the ACLU, and the Judicial Action Network, knowing the stakes, spent over $330,000 in the race on Taylor’s behalf. https://19thnews.org/2026/04/wisconsin-supreme-court-election
Christine Lyn Taylor (58), a native of Los Angeles, California, graduated from Birmingham High School in that city’s San Fernando Valley Van-Nuys/Encino area. She received her BA from the University of Pennsylvania in 1990 and a 1995 law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School. She remained in Wisconsin, and from 1996-2002 worked in private practice in both Milwaukee and Madison. She then became the public policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Taylor_(judge)
In 2011, she won a Wisconsin State Assembly seat in the heavily Democratic 48th District that included parts of Madison, parts of Monona and McFarland. In 2012, she ran for re-election in the redrawn 76th District which included parts of downtown Madison and northeast Madison, including the WI State Capitol. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Taylor_(judge) She won re-elections unopposed in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018. While in the WI Legislature, Taylor was an “outspoken supporter of abortion rights, gun control, and labor unions.”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Taylor_(judge)
In 2020, Dem. Gov. Evers appointed Taylor to the WI circuit court in Dane County, where Madison is located. She replaced Judge Jill Karofsky who had been elected to the WI Supreme Court. Taylor won a full term to her position in April 2021. In 2023, she won election to the WI Court of Appeals.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Taylor(judge)
Shortly after the 2025 WI High Court election, Taylor announced she would run for the WI Supreme Court in 2026 to challenge incumbent Justice Rebecca Bradley. When Bradley retired, Taylor, as previously noted, ran against Maria Lazar. Taylor was backed by WI Supreme Ct. Justices Rebecca Dallet, Jill Karofsky, Janet Protasiewicz,and Susan Crawford. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Taylor_(judge) The Democratic Party of Wisconsin and U.S. WI Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin also endorsed her. Republican Lazar was endorsed by former GOP WI Gov. Scott Walker and the state’s current six GOP congressional members.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Taylor_(judge)
As expected, Democrat Taylor and GOP Lazar have opposing views on key issues. Taylor supports health care, especially reproductive rights and stands for a fair criminal justice system. She also wants the government to check and regulate the excesses of unbridled business power. GOPer Lazar is a member of the right-wing Federalist Society and has spoken to them three times. In the judicial campaign, abortion was a major issue that Taylor stressed, and she also emphasized her past advocacy for sexual assault survivors. Lazar, however, said she would uphold the 20 week abortion ban as a “compromise.”Lazar additionally ran against Taylor using traditional GOP/Trumpist memes. She attacked non-citizen voting, emphasized voter ID laws, and transgender girls in women’s sports, hardly major matters, but GOP obsessions trotted out to win elections. https://19thnews.org/2026/wisconsin-supreme-court-election/
Supreme Court elections in WI used to be nail-biters. Not anymore. As pundits have repeatedly noted, Democrats have now won four straight Badger High Court contests handily. The anti-union, hard-right GOP agenda that former GOP Gov. Scott Walker had previously implemented in WI, and which national Republicans used as a model in other states has been rejected. The GOP coalition that brought Donald victory in 2024 WI was not present in this Supreme Ct. contest. Heavily Hispanic areas in Milwaukee’s south side shifted sharply to Taylor. Taylor got 91% of the vote compared to Harris’s 64% from that group. Milwaukee County ran overall 11 points more for Taylor than for Harris. In every area of the state, Badger voters swung hard toward the “Blue” camp. This included urban areas, smaller cities, and even rural areas in Trump country. Waukesha, an ancestrally GOP suburb of Milwaukee, that has often carried that party to victory in statewide races, this time, even elected a Democratic mayor!https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/4/8/2376963/-Why-the-latest-elections-were-the-most-ominous-yet-for-tdhe-GOP?pm_campaign=front_page&p… You get the idea.
This WI Supreme Court election is a good harbinger for Democrats’ chances to take back the House and recapture the Senate. In fact, the Trump rating and brand is in the political “dumpster.” Trump’s polling is below 50% in 104 GOP-held House seats and in 31 Senate seats. Donald’s approval is, in fact, below 45% in areas represented by 44 GOP House members and 10 in the Senate. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/4/8/2376963/-Why-the-latest-elections-were-the-most-ominous-yet-for-tdhe-GOP?pm_campaign=front_page&p… Now, we must just remember to vote in droves this November to take back those chambers. Once again, congratulations, WI State Supreme Court Justice Chris Taylor!
